BUSTED

In the articles, "Web networking photos come back to bite defendants" and "Teenagers Misbehaving, for All Online to Watch", I have learned that we are always being watched online. In another article I found, it also proved the same thing with a college student on the rise of what would be a bright future. The story I found involved a college student on the verge of a teaching degree, but was sadly denied that opportunity due to pictures she posted online that portrayed her as someone that influenced bad choices onto teens. All acts in these articles were posted online and with time, all of the teens in the pictures we punished due to them being posted.

The way that most people make anything public now a days is through the computer. Everybody is out to post a hot video online or themselves and friends partying hard and not caring what nobody think. The teens of the three articles I read made the mistake of posting pictures of themselves drinking heavily and partying hard. Due to incidents that happened, prosecutors go back to these teens MySpace pages and find out what they can about them and use it in court for harsher punishments.

In the case of the first teen, the incident that took place was a drunk driving accident. Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, he found himself dressed as a prisoner, practically mocking the law and posting pictures of it as a way of showing he had no remorse for the incident. Prosecutors use this is as a way of showing the courts that the defendant isn't in anyway remorseful to the injured and should be punished to the full extent. The judge agreed with the prosecutor that a harsher punishment was definitely deserved.

This article tells a story of a group of kids, not specifically one group of kids but a lot of adolescences today, that take joy and a lot of pride in the videos they can make and post online. This article tells stories of why kids post these terrible acts online for all to watch. They also talk about why the videos get posted and what they consist of. Most videos published in this article refer to someone being humiliated or beaten up. All forms of how teens these days put their names out in the streets, how they build what they call a reputation for themselves and also how they entertain themselves in towns where they feel there is nothing else to do. In the videos of the vicious beating, they prove to be more than enough evidence to have the culprits prosecuted. In other videos, one person may actually be come a star, as did Adam Schleichkorn, 25, of Huntington, who has labeled himself the "Godfather of Fence Plowing", who landed himself on t.v for many of these childish videos. He claims he did it all for a little popularity.

The last article I read, "Be Careful What You Post Online", was about a college student on the verge of becoming a teacher, but was sadly denied that privilege due to harmless pictures of her having a good time with friends and having a few drinks. The dean at Millersville University claimed, student Stacy Snyder, of legal drinking age, was promoting under aged drinking because of a picture he spotted online of Snyder holding a cup with a party hat on and insisting it was liquor in the cup. Stacy did apologize and also found out she would later be getting her English degree, not her teachers. Although she may have this degree she isn't allowed to become a teacher without that degree and now settles for being a nanny. She has also filed a lawsuit against the university for $75,000 in damages against the university.

In any one of these cases, a lot could of been done to prevent the punishments given to these teens. I mean what teen doesn't like showing off something hot they did or saw, but it doesn't have to necessarily be for the world to enjoy. Posting these videos or pictures online can come with a price you're not willing to pay so in future cases, I feel people should just be more choice wise about what pictures they post. Make sure they don't have anything worth getting you in trouble for in them, make sure theres no acts of violence or harm towards someone. Don't act as if you don't care about the incident on hand by posting pictures of yourself mocking the law. There are tons of ways to avoid any type pf legal or lawful complications. Putting pictures private may also help and giving out certain pictures may also provide some help as well. It's always better to be safer than sorry so I'd basically just say, keep the pictures off that don't need to be posted and post everything else that wouldn't cause any trouble.